Ma­hen's Di­ary

… pon­dok was a wel­come stop. Jo­han [the guide] pointed out the gi­ants around us and spoke of ghosts, back when the area was pop­u­lated with fam­i­lies. Fruit trees and oil palm planted more than a cen­tury ago… or was it a cen­tury and a half? No one knows for sure.

At the river, we rested un­der the shade of the canopy, feet soak­ing in cold wa­ter. Just as the last mem­bers of the team were trick­ling down a slip­pery path, a friend slipped and fell over the moss-cov­ered rocks. With an in­jured knee and back, he was now our top pri­or­ity.

From then on­wards the trek took much longer than it should. We still had a few rivers to cross, and night was fall­ing fast. Our head­lamps showed the way – don’t try look­ing for it and the trail is right there; look too closely and imag­i­nary trails will lead you astray. Af­ter 12 hours of walk­ing, we fi­nally reached the chapel. Ex­hausted, but spir­its were up. Tried to go to bed early, but con­ver­sa­tions by a wood fire stove with bis­cuits and a cup of hot cof­fee were too tempt­ing to re­sist.